Next week, on the Major Spoilers Podcast, the crew is breaking down the best and worst comic book and pop culture moments of 2008. Does the Dark Knight make the cut? Which list will Dan DiDio land on? What about Secret Invasion and Final Crisis? What other moments struck the show’s hosts as they look back on what happened over the past 12 months?
As you know, the Major Spoilers Podcast is nothing without feedback from great readers and listeners like you. You can use the comment section below, drop us a voice mail by calling (785) 727-1939, or record your comments and send it as an MP3 file in an email to podcast@majorspoilers.com.
We record the new show Tuesday night, so make sure you have your contribution to us by 5:00 PM CST Tuesday evening.
I’d really like to have a lot of audio comments to play during the show, so give us a shout and you may end up on the show!
20 Comments
Obviously, I prefer Final Crisis over Secret Invasion. The Ideas in Final Crisis are bigger and cooler than those in Secret Invasion. Invasion’s “conclusion” was no such thing – big deal they “killed” the Wasp and had a that element that’s leading to “THE NEXT BIG EVENT”.
If you’re really into Jack Kirby’s oeuvre then you can catch all the weird and interesting allusions in Final Crisis.
All Star Superman was the best series of the year – CLEARLY. Umbrella Academy Dallas, got two issues in for 2008. Sandman Dream Hunters Adaptation by P Craig Russell ALSO got two issues in. Warren Ellis’ Anna Mercury was pretty interesting. The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman is good for a laugh (I actually like this series). Thor by JMS is awesome. Batman the Dark Knight is the Best movie of the year along with “Let the Right One In” (Horror Movie). Buffy Season 8 is consistently great. Detective Comics by Paul Dini is Very good, Battlestove Galacticlown’s Season 4.0 was pretty good.
Worst
– Secret Invasion by Bendis
– Giant Size Astonishing X-Men by Joss Whedon (MOST DISAPPOINTING Conclusion)
– House of Mystery (Very Boring)
– Blue Beetle by Sturges
– ALL of the X-Men titles except for Matt Fraction’s Uncanny X-Men
– Conan by Tim Truman is UNBELIEVABLY BORING (and that’s saying something considering how well written Robert E. Howard’s Conan mythos really is)
– Jack of Fables by Sturges (what does ANYONE see in this writing?!)
– The Eternals by the Knauf brood (Epic Failure – IS NO ONE SMART ENOUGH to handle Kirby’s legacy?!)
– Fantastic Four by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch: who knew that it would be such an also-ran. BORING with a capital M. Millar had better start producing material again that is commensurate with his hype.
– Wall-E (Nice visuals but the story left much to be desired)
– Terminator the Sarah Connor Chronicles Season 2 (FOX HATES Sci-fi done right. They slashed this season’s budget but renewed it for a full season 2 because the studio didn’t have enough money for a new series. Bottomline, the bargain basement budget cut-off all of the cool stories they could have produced in favor of boring melodrama. F-you FOX)
– FOX Studios for being the a-holes who may shutdown WATCHMEN the movie
– FOX again for destroying “Virtuality” a series in development by the creator of Battlestar Galactica, Ron Moore. Apparently, FOX wants to make it more down to earth and CHEAPER
– Doktor Sleepless (Total Warren Ellis misfire. If you’re going to do elements of Lovecraftian Horror they had better actually be somewhat scary and/or with a cool intellectual twist)
– The ENTIRE Ultimate Marvel line EXCEPT for Ultimate Spider-Man
–
action comics /all superman books
amazing spider-man three times a month with brand new day being the best spidey stories in along time.
comic book movies breaking box office and almost sinks the Titanic
smallville back on track after a few slow seasons
spider-man 4 and 5 being made
marvel finally found a way beside x-men to put together a team superhero movie
hulk make a return and smashes his way back into movie theater’s.
lost last season was cut short but still had time to end on a high note ( writers of heroes take note )
Worst: Final Crisis
Nuff said.
Movies:
+ Apart from The Dark Knight and Iron Man, cinematic highlights of the year for me were In Bruges and Burn After Reading, although the latter two are probably not that geeky to be discussed on the show. (I haven’t seen Inc Hulk yet).
– Hellboy 2 was a letdown for me, as were Indy 4 and the X-Files.
Wall-E was a good movie, but not that superb as everyone made it out to be imho.
TV
+ Battlestar Galactica – still going strong.
– Heroes – meh…
Comics
+ The conclusion of Y: The Last Man. Not the fact that it finished, but that it was a fine ending to a brilliant series
– Although I still like Whedon’s run on Astonishing X-Men, the finale probably wasn’t the highpoint of the series
Too bad Darkseid doesn’t frequent these forums because then at the beginning of each of his posts would be “Darkseid Says”. Heh.
TV: Dexter never fails to impress! (good)
-Terminator went really bad during the end of the season… (bad)
Movie: e__e we all know what i’m gonna say…It rhymes with park right…. (good)
-Hancock… (ba…you get the system right?..- means bad)
Comics: Umbrella Academy (It ended in 08)
-Secret invasion of bleerchhh…but Dark Reign looks like it might be really good.
Games: Left 4 Dead (So much fun)
Havent played anything bad this year O_o….havent played that much though
Popcultur: Super heroes, super heroes, super heroes
-Vampires (True blood, 30 days of night, twillight)
Single issue of awesome: Conclusion of: Y the last man
-Batman cacophony 1…wont be reading the rest (And I’m a huge Smith fan)
Single scene of awesome: Sylar in the elevator
-Daphene’s timetravel into the future…It mades no sense and they even started throwing Einsten and space time continium around like they were writing a craptastic sci-fi Tv movie.
Single scene of awesome (movie): The jokers magic trick…Ooh how i laughed
-Somehing i picked up in a Twilligth trailer…
Geek of the year: Obama (for being the first Conan collecting President…that i know of)
-Any of the suits at Fox for killing not only an early Watchmen release but also for telling Dollhouse to put the lotion on its skin.
———————–And the greatest and worst that have come out of 08…geek related are…
Zack Snyder and JJ Abrams making geekery more profitable and respected than ever in the mainstream.
-Celebrity or news anchor Rick Rolls…..Not funny…I will excuse the Astley/Fosters thanksgiving float though..
Also im really dissapointed by the recent run on “Runaways”
‘Iron Man’ and ‘Dark Knight’ were both really great in very different ways. I haven’t seen ‘The Spirit’ yet, but want to out of a morbid curiosity.
‘Kung Fu Panda’ was my favorite 3-d animated movie of the year. It was more fun, way less boring, and had better fight scenes the the colossally over-rated, over-long and over-preachy ‘Wall-E’. Disney’s ‘Bolt’ was also way more fun than I expected it to be. I haven’t seen ‘Despereax’, but want to.
‘Speed Racer’ was like being visually raped, but I didn’t hate it either. Destined to become a stoner classic based on the visuals alone.
The conclusion of the Harry Potter Series arrived and was OK, I guess.
Read a few issues of the latest ‘Madman’ but didn’t keep up with it….Need to find back issues.
Did any issues of ‘Nexus’ come out this year or was that last year?…
Don’t really read any monthly books anymore, so didn’t follow ‘Crisis’ or ‘Invasion’.
‘Batman: The Brave and the Bold’ is really great, and looks like it will continue to be so.
Heroes was, ‘Meh’ and ‘Pushing Daisies’ was great, so of course ‘Daisies’ was canceled…
‘BSG’ and ‘Lost’ had really good seasons and promise to continue with their geeky goodness this year. The same thing goes for ‘Chuck’.
This season of ‘Dr. Who’, (with Donna) was pretty inconsistent, with some good eps and some awful ones.
‘Eureka’ on Sci-Fi really found its voice this year, and the characters really gelled. The show, while having some dark moments, is generally lighthearted making it stand out from most other televised science fiction with the exception of ‘Dr. Who’.
Wow. What a difference a year makes. At the end of ’07, I remember we were talking about the death of Captain America, Iron Fist, Civil War, Sinestro Corp War, and of course a Brand New Day to name a few. (Forgive my Marvel slant.) 2008 though was sort of a disappointing blur for me for the most part when it came to comics. I can’t remember a year where so much was hyped and the actual quality of the books from a storytelling and visual standpoint fell way short of expectations. I’ll remember this as a year where I really decided to drop pricey titles because of ridiculous shipping delays and lack of real editorial direction. I am flat out tired of event-driven books and specials. My new year’s resolution is to reflect my disgust with my wallet.
On the positive side…this was a great year for super hero movies. The Dark Knight and Iron Man can stand on their own as really good films period.
I’m with all of the Lost and Chuck fans. I also think Smallville is quietly having a great season.
Oh, I forgot something in the TV category: British sitcoms The IT Crowd and No Heroics are well worth checking out (and they both have a heavy geek factor).
The best of the year everything from major spoilers
Thanks guys and here to a new year .
When that Julian guy sent in those awesome pictures and won a really cool statue.
j/k ;D
I sent my real thoughts to you guys by phone.
Julian: Thanks for sending us your audio comments! It will most certainly appear on the show. Hope more people send us some voicemail feedback!
damn it, i wrote my best and worst, but apparently i didn’t click ‘submit’. well, lets try this again
best:
– comic book tattoo: a great idea very well executed
– the many deluxe and omnibus collection that came out this year
– wanted: very different from the comic, but still an awesome movie
– incredible hulk: now we can forget the other one (i know, some people love it, but i don’t)
– fables: as good as ever
– the twelve: strazcynsky doing some of his best work in comics in years
worst:
– the watchmen case: if this continue, we won’t have the move in march
– runaways by joss whedon: piece of crap. period.
– the many deluxe and omnibus collection that came out this year, my wallet can take so much
– bendis: dude, you need to get back to your roots, doing indy comics and letting some other dudes doing some work at marvel
oh yeah, i forgot frank miller. get off the camera and on your typewriter you selfish son of a *****
and in the Best categorie: The Wrester. Darren Aronovfsky is my favorite director and he didn’t disapoint with his latest work.
forgot another thing,
the best of the best in 2008 was Major Spoilers and you podcast. seriously, The CGS crew is good, but you are better. you should invite them, or get invited to their show, i’d love to hear Matthew showing up his knowledge of comics against theirs.
I’ve been given an invite to their show once the All-Star Batman series hits its next milestone. They don’t want to cover it until then, but I’ve been told I’ll be a guest when they talk about it (apparently, I’m the only one that likes the series :D )
yes you are
the best of the best in 2008 was Major Spoilers and you podcast. seriously, The CGS crew is good, but you are better. you should invite them, or get invited to their show, i’d love to hear Matthew showing up his knowledge of comics against theirs.
No, ya don’t.
Because with the notable exception of the Maggott era of X-Men, my powers reign supreme. :)
@Stephen
Both batman series (R.I.P and All Star) really felt like they left a lot to be desired. I think they both deserve the worst list.